1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a coupon redemption or arcade video game, in general, and, more specifically to a memory game for matching symbols, briefly displayed on a screen, with their correct relative location on an array of pushbuttons on a console.
2. Description of Related Art
The prior art includes a number of educational devices and games that require the user to exercise memory skills to match clues with correct responses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,398 presents a message on a screen which requires the user to enter a correct response on a plurality of keys. The display can be arbitrarily changed by means of a random number generator and a timer may be employed to expedite play. Such devices are known in the educational field. They do not, however, require any skill concerning the location of a correct answer with respect to the location of a clue previously shown on the screen.
A number of other devices, sometimes referred to as cognometers, can be employed to test a user's recall a period of time after a specific message or clue has been presented to the user. A typical prior art cognometer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,636.
Other prior art devices which require the user to match answers against visual clues are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,978,302; 4,829,431 and 5,122,062.
Some prior art educational devices and games include a timing mechanism to test the user's skill in a shortened time frame. The following patents disclose such devices, even though they are known in other contexts: U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,455; 4,593,904 and 5,178,545.
The laying out of pushbuttons in a tic-tac-toe arrangement is found in certain electronic tic-tac-toe-like games. See, for example, the disclosures in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,228,596 and 4,275,442. In neither case, however, is the layout of the response buttons coordinated with a display on a video screen.
Finally, the following U.S. Pat. Nos. are cited as being of general interest, but otherwise do not appear to be as relevant to the disclosed invention: 2,835,052; 4,359,220; 4,978,303.
None of the foregoing prior art teaches or suggests a novel educational and entertaining video game in which the player is challenged to match the location of symbols arranged in a tic-tac-toe format on a video screen with pushbuttons laid out in a similar array on a console after the original display has been discontinued.